


The Phoenix Nest

by enemyfrigate



Category: Torchwood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-17
Updated: 2011-10-17
Packaged: 2017-10-24 17:12:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/265895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enemyfrigate/pseuds/enemyfrigate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ianto lives for Jack's first breaths.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Phoenix Nest

The first time Ianto kills him, Jack chalks it up to accident and adrenalin. Bullets had been flying everywhere, after all.

Jack gasps back into life to an impassive Ianto standing over him. Jack would normally say Ianto had been watching over him, but something strikes him as odd and later, after the trouble has been contained (space mafia, don't ask) and he is sitting in his own familiar office chair, he realizes that Ianto had not been watching over him. He'd simply been watching.

Well, that's natural. They'd lost Owen and Tosh not a month ago. Just because he knows Jack cannot die permanently doesn't mean Ianto never worries.

Jack resolves to be more present, a better boyfriend, a closer friend. They'll get used to Tosh and Owen's loss. They have to.

They really have to.

**

The second time Jack dies from Ianto inflicted wounds, Jack convinces himself that he'd been thrown into the path of the speeding car to distract the driver, another blowfish. A painful, unorthodox, but practical solution. Somewhere the fish had got bulletproof tires and they have no way of stopping him otherwise without using the big gun to blow up the car and incidentally, more of Cardiff.

Jack is reborn to find his limbs neatly arranged, but no pillowing jacket under his head. Ianto is usually good about making sure Jack wakes up comfortably. Ianto's probably busy, though, and so he is, though busy this time involves sitting on the hood of the rather nice Jaguar while flipping through the contents of the fish's wallet.

Ianto looks over at Jack, than stands up and walks off without a word.

What the hell? Jack thinks. It's too early in the .... life ... for this.

**

Jack dies at Ianto's hands again the next day.

Ianto's put a poison in the coffee served to him and an obnoxious colonel from UNIT supposedly overseeing Cardiff's more conventional space defenses.

Jack comes back to life slumped over on his desk and shoves himself up. This has gone too far. He barely spares a glance for the man from UNIT, whose corpse is slowly changing back into a vaguely snout-faced shape shifting alien he's seen before. Bad news, that kind, and nothing he will regret killing.

Ianto is sitting on his couch with a glass of scotch in his hand.

"So, you're back then," Ianto says, and swallows down the scotch.

"Ianto, are you pissed at me? Did I do something?" Jack asks. A thought occurs. "Isn't Gwen supposed to be our go between when I do something hideously insensitive by 21st century romantic standards?"

"Yes. Sir. She is," Ianto says.

Then, Ianto says, "I'm not angry," though there's a glitter in his eye that says he's something other than content.

"Do you enjoy seeing me die?" Jack demands, frustrated. "Are you counting coup? Is there a bet on?"

"No, sir, none of that," Ianto says. He puts the glass down and gets up. He's hard.

"You're not the kind of guy who gets off on killing," Jack breathes. He's trying not to be distracted but it's difficult. What's the odd death when there's a cock like that waiting for you?

"I want to see you live," Ianto says, his accent thicker than usual. "I want to see you come back. I ...need to see you come back."

Jack could deal with a new kink, but this is unexpected and he doesn't think he can pull this off with a smile and a joke.

"Come here," Jack says, holding out his hand. Ianto takes it, grip firm, and Jack reels him in, and kisses him until Ianto's strong fingers find his hips and guide him back against the desk.

They fuck long and slow over Jack's paperwork, knocking aside the poisoned cups when Ianto unfolds Jack's legs to make room for him.

Ianto is solid against Jack and in Jack and he presses his face to Jack's collarbone when he finally comes, breathing a ragged tempo not far from sobbing.

His face is dry when Jack pulls his head up for a kiss.

Ianto takes Jack in hand, a little clumsy post-orgasm but so good that Jack is groaning Ianto's name and pulsing over his fingers in less than a minute.

They cling together, skin to skin, cheek to cheek.

"Every time, I think you're gone. Every time, I wait an eternity for you to breathe again," Ianto says. "Every time, I think it's all over."

Jack kisses his temple and pulls him in tight. There's nothing he can say to that.

**

The next time Ianto serves him poisoned coffee, Jack drinks down the bitter brew with a smile and a wink.

"See you on the other side," Jack says, and breathes his last.


End file.
